Spurs vs Tromso IL - Gylfi's target

Gylfi Sigurdsson expects Tromso IL to be fired up ahead of their Europa League outing at White Hart Lane on Thursday night.

The Norwegians have been struggling domestically this term, but were buoyed after claiming the scalp of Tippeligaen leaders Rosenborg last weekend.

And attacking midfielder Gylfi, who bagged both our goals at the Lane in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Norwich City in the Premier League, believes the visitors will put any lingering concerns over their domestic position to one side, and will relish the chance to test themselves against us.

“It’s a different competition,” Gylfi said. “They’re playing at Tottenham Hotspur and that’s obviously something they’ll be looking forward to and it’ll be one of their biggest games of the season.

“They’ll be up for the game, and come to us looking to make sure that they go home with three points.

“Coming here, there will be no pressure on them. But from our point of view we’re at home and we want to start this competition well, and we want to get the three points.”

As was evident last season, our Head Coach Andre Villas-Boas values the Europa League - having won it in 2011 with Porto.Iceland international Gylfi, having played his part in our run to the quarter-finals last term, shares Andre's determination to mount a serious challenge in the competition this time around.

“Personally I enjoyed it (the European run last season) and I think all the boys enjoyed it as well. We were very disappointed with the way we went out against Basel last season in the penalty shootout, that’s something we want to improve on and (we want to) go far in this competition.”